You’ve heard me talk before about how busy my life can get. I’m not sure it’s as busy as you think it is, but nevertheless, it is busy. Along with a full time job, I’m in school, I oversee a women’s ministry, lead a home group with my hubs, and mother one of the best and most challenging one-year-olds around. It’s easy when you have so much going on to feel like you have no time at all. But is that true?

I’ve found that my busyness can become an excuse. I like to think thoughts about how I have all these dreams but no time to pursue them. But is that really true? If you survey the amount of time I scroll through Facebook or watch TV… Is it really true that I’m too busy to do the things I want to do?

I want to do a better job at living in the margins. Dreaming in the margins. Loving in the margins.

Listen, there were several years when my husband and I believed that when we had kids, I would be able to stay home with them. But life changed, the plans we had made did not happen, and when the time came, the reality is that the plan for me to be home had to change too. But just because I have to work, or have chosen to tack on school as well, does not mean that I can’t read or write or pursue dreams. In the margins.

Leading the women’s ministry at my local church is part of this pursuit. Sure, it would be easier to do if I wasn’t working full-time as well, but it’s something I love to do, it gives me great joy, and so I do it – in the margins. And if I really survey my days, my weeks, I think I will find that my margins are a bit wider than I like to think they are.

Busy women, do you have things that you love to do? That you dream about one day doing? Take a look at the margins of your life. Is it possible that maybe, just maybe, you can still do those things you want to do even while you still do the things you have to do? Don’t let years fly by without surveying your time and finding those margins that can be squeezed for all they’re worth. Even if it’s just to find that little bit of time you need to rest and breathe in deep. Don’t let time slip by as you agonize over your responsibilities and miss all the margins that can be filled with life-giving soul-satisfying pursuits.

Like I told my friend Courtney a few weeks ago, “Cheers!” Cheers to living (and dreaming) in the margins.